Deliver E-Books to Classrooms through iPad E-Book Subscription Apps

To engage young learners in reading, many teachers are using e-books on classroom iPads. E-book subscriptions apps for iPad help these teachers easily manage the process of selecting and downloading e-books to their classroom iPads.

Given the ease with which e-books can be delivered to any computer or mobile device, it makes sense that some companies would start offering subscription services so you can sign up and get e-books delivered directly to your device as needed.

E-book subscription apps are being added to iTunes every day, so be sure to check for new additions. This article highlights two of the oldest services.

Storia e-book subscriptions for iPad

Scholastic is a leading publisher of children’s books in the United States and is now producing e-books as well. Storia is Scholastic’s e-book management app, designed to download, store, manage, and read e-books. Storia comes with five free e-books.

Sign up for a Storia account online, and you’ll gain access to a growing catalog of e-books that includes picture, chapter, and interactive books (for purchase and download), all targeted to children from the ages of 3 to 14.

Scholastic offers popular and reasonably priced books ranging from the Harry Potter series to Clifford, the Big Red Dog and The Hunger Games Trilogy.

Set up a separate virtual bookshelf for every child. As you purchase e-books, you can assign them to the bookshelf of any child.

Books can be selected by age, grade, reading level, price, and character or series.

Follow the prompts to purchase your book.

You’ll need to sign into your Storia account to complete the purchase.

After completing the purchase, open the Storia app on your iPad, and tap the Parent Tools icon in the upper-right corner of the home screen.

Tap Manage e-Books, download the e-book, and assign it to the appropriate bookshelf.

You can track an individual child’s progress through each e-book, see what new words he learned and how many pages he read, and how long he spends reading each day. Select titles, called enriched e-books, also include word games, story interactions, and animations.

Reading Rainbow e-book subscriptions for iPad

You probably remember Reading Rainbow, the TV series hosted by LeVar Burton that ran on PBS for more than two decades. Reading Rainbow is now an app that offers subscription-based downloads of books for children ages 3 to 9.

Children tap a themed island, such as Animal Kingdom, My Friends, My Family, or Genius Academy, which takes them to a selection of books they can browse. Each island also has a selection of “field trip” videos, some of which come from the original series.

As was the case with the TV show, many of the stories are read by celebrity actors, and you can elect to turn the narration on or off.

Books feature light animations and activities to enhance the story. Reading Rainbow currently contains a library of 150 interactive e-books; monthly subscriptions range from $5 to $10, depending on the term of the subscription.